Barbara Dunlop - Marriage, Manhattan Style

Then finally the dance ended. Elizabeth gave her husband one last fleeting glance then slipped out a side door.

“I didn’t expect you this early.” Hanna hopped up from the sofa as Elizabeth entered the penthouse.

“I missed Lucas,” Elizabeth lied, hoping she’d successfully hid evidence of her crying jag while she was in the back of the limo. In case her eyes were still red, she busied herself hanging up her coat and putting her purse away.

“He was a doll,” said Hanna. “And Joe really does change diapers.”

“Pediatric protection detail,” Joe put in, levering up out of his chair.

“But you were right,” said Hanna in a breezy voice. “He’s not allowed to make out while he’s on duty.”

Elizabeth sputtered out a laugh. “You propositioned my bodyguard?”

“I’m your driver,” Joe corrected.

“He’s a stickler for the rules,” said Hanna with a saucy shimmy.

“Would you mind driving Hanna home?” Elizabeth asked Joe. The faster they left her alone, the faster she could fall apart.

“Not at all,” he drawled. “There’s a…little matter we need to finish.”

“I…”

Elizabeth smiled, amazed that she could be happy for her friend when her own life was crashing down around her.

“Good night, Elizabeth,” Joe offered as he propelled Hanna toward the door.

“I’ll call you.” Hanna waved.

“Lock up,” he advised as he let the door swing shut.

Elizabeth turned the dead bolt and took two steps back. Then, she stopped, bracing a hand on the entry table and closing her eyes as the world spun around her. She felt genuinely dizzy.

What on earth did she do now?

The spinning stopped, and she walked into her home. She took in the furniture they’d had custom-made, the paintings she’d so lovingly chosen, the wrapped package leaning against the wall. It was the painting they’d purchased in France, when everything seemed like it would work out.

What was Reed thinking? How could he make such tender, passionate love to Elizabeth while coconut…Selina was waiting in New York?

She made her way down the hall, listened by Lucas’s door, then turned into the office. There, she did something she’d never done before. She opened Reed’s laptop and booted it up.

It took only three tries to guess his password and get into his e-mail. She scrolled through hundred of entries, until she came to the dates they’d been in France. Selina Marin, Selina Marin, Selina Marin. There were dozens of e-mails from her, and dozens of answers from Reed.

Elizabeth didn’t have the heart to read any of the messages. The last faint hope that she’d somehow been mistaken was gone. Reed had a mistress, and Elizabeth’s life was a lie.

Reed couldn’t understand why Elizabeth had left the party. If she was worried about Lucas, she should have said something. As it was, he’d been left in the embarrassing predicament of having to make her excuses.

Unlocking the penthouse door, he found himself struggling for patience. “Elizabeth?” He kept his voice low, not wanting to disturb Lucas if he was asleep.

“Elizabeth?” he tried again, dropping his keys on the table. Her purse and coat were here, and Hanna and Joe had obviously left.

He started down the hall, glancing into the office, Lucas’s room, then, finally, the master bedroom.

“There you are.” He stopped short, seeing an open suitcase on the bed. “What’s wrong?” Had there been some news? Was she going to California?

She didn’t answer, didn’t look at him. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, and there was a stiffness to her walk.

“Elizabeth?” He moved toward her, arms out, fear rising in his throat.

“Don’t touch me!” she snapped, jerking back.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“You know perfectly well what’s wrong.” She met his eyes for the first time, and he was floored by the anger he saw reflected in her depths.

“What?”

She yanked open a drawer. “Don’t play dumb with me.”

“I’m not playing anything. Why are you packing? Where are you going?” His heartbeat thickened in his chest. Something was terribly wrong.

“Selina Marin. Name mean anything to you?”

Uh-oh. Had she heard about the blackmail? Was she afraid for Lucas? “I didn’t want to tell you,” he began, “because-”

“You don’t think I can guess why you kept it a secret?”

Well, yes, of course she could guess. “There were so many things going on. You had so much on your mind.”

Elizabeth gave a hysterical little laugh, then pressed a shaking hand against her mouth. “You think I was too busy to hear about your mistress?”

For a split second Reed was too stunned to react. “My what?” His harsh shout woke Lucas, and the baby cried out.

Elizabeth immediately moved for the door.

Reed grabbed her by the arm. “What the hell are you talking about?” he thundered.

“Let me go.”

He released her, and she darted to the nursery.

Reed followed. “I have no mistress,” he hissed from behind.

Elizabeth picked up the crying baby, rocking him against her shoulder.

“Did you hear me?” Reed demanded.

Elizabeth turned as Lucas’s sobs subsided. “You’re caught, Reed.”

“Caught doing what?”

“I know she’s not a client. I know she’s not a job applicant. I know your friends and your staff have been covering for you. You lie when you say you’re in meetings-”

“I do not lie.”

“Keep your voice down.”

“I do not lie, Elizabeth. When I say I’m in meetings, I’m in meetings. I can’t always share the subjects with you, but that’s for your own good.”

She harrumphed a sound of disbelief. “How long, Reed? How long have you been sleeping with Selina Marin?”

“Selina Marin is a private investigator.”

“There we have it,” said Elizabeth. “Career number four for the intrepid Ms. Marin.”

“She is a private investigator. And I’m not sleeping with her.”

“Prove it.”

Reed almost laughed. Elizabeth was as bad as the SEC, asking him to prove something didn’t happen?

“I saw the e-mails,” said Elizabeth.

“What e-mails?”

“The e-mails from France. You wrote to the woman every damn day. How could…” Tears welled up in Elizabeth’s eyes, and she turned away.

Reed dragged a hand through his hair, wondering how everything in his life could get so far off-track. He could see that Lucas’s eyes were fluttering closed, so he backed out of the nursery, giving Elizabeth a chance to settle him again.

He waited in the hall, his mind ticking through possible scenarios that had led her down this path. He had to come clean about the blackmail. He realized that. But how on earth had she interpreted Selina’s PI activities as an affair? Surely it took more than business e-mails to the woman for Reed to be tried and convicted.

Elizabeth exited the nursery, pulling the door partway closed.

Reed reached out to her. “Come and sit down.”

She shook her head.

“Please? Something’s gone so far wrong, and we’re not going to work it out unless we talk.”

“I don’t want to be lied to.”

“I’m not going to lie.”

She gave a little laugh. “A liar telling me he’s not going to lie. How could I possibly doubt the sincerity of that?”

“Elizabeth.” Now she was frustrating him.

“I’m done, Reed. It’s over.”

“How did you see the e-mails?”

She looked momentarily stricken. “I hacked into your computer.”

“The password wasn’t there to keep you out.”

“You e-mailed her from Biarritz every single day. While you…While we…”

Reed remembered full well what they’d done in Biarritz. “Did you read them?”

Elizabeth shook her head.

He reached for her hand, but she jerked away.

“I’m being blackmailed, Elizabeth.”

“Because you’re having an affair?”

Reed clamped his jaw and counted to ten. “Let’s sit down.”

She set her lips in a mulish line.

“Do you want to know the truth?”

She blinked rapidly. “I want to know the truth. I need to know the truth. Don’t lie to me anymore. Please, Reed. I couldn’t stand it.”

His heart contracted, but this time when he reached for her hand, she let him take it. He led her to the living room, to the wingback chairs in the bay window where they’d be facing each other.

“I’m being blackmailed,” he began. “Last month, I got a letter demanding ten million dollars or ‘the world will learn the dirty secret of how the Wellingtons make their money.’ I ignored it. Then the SEC investigation started, and we realized it was connected to the blackmail. We also realized that my blackmail could be connected with Trent and with Julia and-here’s the biggest problem-the police can’t rule out that Marie Endicott’s death wasn’t a murder and wasn’t connected to the blackmails.”

“And you didn’t tell me?” Elizabeth’s voice was small.

“I didn’t want to worry you. You were trying to conceive.”

“How could you not tell me?”

“There was nothing you could do.”

“I could have given you moral support.”

“Yeah. Right.”

Her expression turned thunderous, and she started to stand.

“I meant, I’m man enough not to burden my wife with my problems.”

“So you burdened Selina instead.”

“Yes. And Collin and Trent and the New York State Police Department.”

“But not me.”

“Elizabeth.”

“I’m not made of spun glass, Reed.”

“We were trying to get pregnant. The party was taking a lot of your time. Then the SEC thing hit, and there was Lucas. And I didn’t think you needed to know there could also be a murderer on the loose. Dr. Wendell specifically said no stress. A murderer is stress, no matter how you slice it.”

“So you hired Joe.”

“Selina hired Joe.”

Elizabeth shook her head sadly. “Let me make sure I’ve got the picture. You’re not sleeping with Selina.”